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Wednesday, 10 September 2014

Destiny powered by Havok Physics

Ah, the melodious sound of NDA barriers collapsing. With Destiny finally on shelves, middleware providers are finally able to celebrate the role they've played in its development.

Yesterday, Umbra revealed its software was used to handle the visual and audio occlusion. Today, Havok proudly points to the use of three of its products in Bungie's ambitious sci-fi shooter.

Destiny, it turns out, has been powered by Havok Physics, Cloth and Script. The trio have been used since the early stages of Destiny's development, and marks the continuation of a long-running partnership between Havok and Bungie.

Havok Physics is primarily used in environmental collisions and vehicles, such as the maneuveres of the Sparrow hover bike that is in no way reminiscent of the speeders from Return of the Jedi.

Havok Cloth, meanwhile, was used to realistically simulate capes, coat tails and other player garments, while Havok Script was used for planning a rapid prototyping in the early stages of development.

"It's been great to partner with the talented Bungie team to ensure that the uiverse of Destiny offers a convincing and engrossing experience, and our support engineers were able to embed themselves within the Bungie team to ensure they got the most out of their use of Havok," said VP of worldwide sales and marketing Brian Waddle.

"Havok technology has been a perfect fit for a game as ambitious and epic as Destiny, because it helps streamline the development process and lets the artists at Bungie focus on realising their vision."

Bungie gameplay engineer Justin Truman added: "Bungie games have always been about robust, complex simulations creating exciting new gameplay experiences. Desinty's living world could not have been realised without Havok's Physics, Cloth and Script technology."